A lot of people are optimistic about the Apple Car, but for all the wrong reasons

There hasn't been this much hype about a nonexistent Apple
product since Steve Jobs was quoted in his official biography as
saying he had finally "cracked" TV.

It was the line that kicked off a thousand blog posts: When is
the Apple television coming? What will it be able to do? What
will it look like? Analysts like Piper Jaffray's
Gene Munster assured us the Apple television was
imminent.

That was over three years ago, and Apple has yet to launch
a television or even an updated version of the Apple TV
box.

Starting last Friday and through the long weekend, all anyone in
the industry could talk about were the various reports that Apple
is working on a top-secret car project.
The Wall Street Journal said the car will be an
Apple-branded electric vehicle that currently resembles a
minivan. (A minivan?) Reuters
reported Apple is working self-driving technology.
The Financial Times reported Apple has a secret research lab
filled with automotive experts trying to work on new products for
cars. And an Apple employee emailed Business Insider to say the
company's working on something that will "give
Tesla a run for its money."

Within a few days, there was so much smoke about Apple's secret
ambitions for the car that there has to be fire. But as neat as
it sounds, there are some who are overly optimistic about Apple's
ability to turn cars into its next major business.

As Business Insider's Jay Yarow wrote
a few years ago, the iPhone is a once-in-a-lifetime megahit.
I'll probably be an old dude or dead before someone comes up with
a product that fundamentally changes the way people live and
interact with each other.

For all the talk and criticism about Apple "needing" to find its
next big thing, Apple has proven that it can do just fine as the
iPhone company. The iPhone
happens to be wildly profitable and sells in massive quantities,
unlike cars that cost tens of thousands of dollars and are
subject to a lot of uncontrollable factors like personal
taste.

That doesn't mean Apple is
wrong to start experimenting with cars, even if it doesn't turn
into a revolutionary money machine like the iPhone. Instead, like
Apple's other, less profitable products such as the iPad, Mac,
and (soon) the Apple Watch, it's part of building a perfectly
curated ecosystem. iOS is already sneaking into cars thanks to
CarPlay, and the latest rumors of Apple's car ambitions could be
a greater extension of that.

Plus, the car is the next
fertile ground for tech to take over, and with competitors like
Google already openly experimenting in the space, it makes sense
for Apple to play too. Apple could make its own car, and it
sounds like that's exactly what it's doing, but it could also
bring its innovations to others thanks to CarPlay, which just
requires an iPhone and a car that supports it.

It's all about building out
Apple's most valuable asset, the iPhone and the ecosystem that
supports it.